Creating and Documenting Chemical Risk Assessments

Explore why a chemical risk assessment enhances safety and reduces liability by addressing waste, employee protection, and cost, using tools like the Chemical Abstracts Service and safety data sheets.

Explore the nation's chemical topic page to identify chemicals that pose hazards to human health and the environment, and compare conflicting data across sources on areas of additional research.

Describe the equipment, process, and activity in the chemical risk assessment, including location, machinery, piping, timing, and who recorded the data with a tracking number for future updates.

Identify a serious health hazard that can be cancer-causing and cause respiratory, reproductive, and chronic organ toxicity, with examples like mercury, lead, cadmium, ammonia, carbon monoxide, and sulfuric acid.

Identify health hazard, harmful, and irritant classifications, and recognize skin, eye, and respiratory irritants along with narcotic effects, with examples like formaldehyde, ethylene glycol, formic acid, and petroleum products.

An oxidizer liberates oxygen, making a fire burn hotter and faster. Examples include hydrogen peroxide, bromine, and nitric acid, with household hydrogen peroxide used to clean wounds.

Examine environmental hazards with emphasis on chemicals toxic to aquatic wildlife, and the current non-mandatory SDS disclosures, illustrated by mercury, lead, nickel, and arsenic.

Define flammable materials as substances that can self-ignite in air, water, or dust, such as acetone, benzene, and isopropyl alcohol; emphasize listing a chemical’s flashpoint in risk assessments.

Explore explosives through practical experiences with planting charges and sensors to map underlying oil and gas deposits, and review examples like nitroglycerin, TNT, and dynamite.

Examine chemical hazard forms—solid, liquid, gas, fume, mist, and nano—and how shape, volume, and airflow influence risk assessments, including powdery and microscopic forms.

Identify chemical health hazards by recognizing carcinogens and mutagens, with examples like cigarette smoke, asbestos, benzene, and arsenic, and note fetal exposure risks and asphyxia from oxygen deficiency.

Explore chemical exposure limits across OSHA, NIOSH, and ACGIH, comparing permissible exposure limits, ceilings, action levels, and TLVs, and learn practical sampling and reporting practices for safe workplaces.

Apply control measures in chemical risk assessments to minimize exposure, using ventilation and isolation, closed-loop systems, and shielding. The carbon fiber cutting example shows fume hood use to reduce fumes.

Identify how personal protective equipment serves as the last line of defense in chemical risk assessments, focusing on glove materials, respirators, and breakthrough times.

Follow first aid procedures from the safety data sheet, ensuring unimpeded access to eyewash, shower, and first aid kits. For hydrochloric acid exposure, rinse five minutes then apply calcium gluconate.